Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Twenty years ago three Worland residents visited a barbecue festival in Denver, Colorado, and brought ideas and planning back to Worland and the Pepsi Wyoming BBQ Championship & Bluegrass Festival was born.
This weekend, the committee celebrates the 20th anniversary with a slate of 30 cooks registered to compete in the Kansas City Barbecue Society sanctioned competition, as well as some long-time favorite activities and some new ones.
The fun begins with the Brewfest tonight (Thursday) from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Washakie County Fairgrounds. A one-time fee gets you unlimited samples of a variety of craft beers. There will also be brats and pork sandwiches available for purchase.
Music and entertainment is provided by "Wyoming's One Man Band" Chad Lore.
Friday's festivities for the actual festival begin at 5:30 p.m. with opening ceremonies and the bluegrass music begins at 6 p.m. with Kentucky Sky, returning from last year. The two new bluegrass bands are Chris Jones & The Night Drivers and The Mark Krider Band.
Saturday begins with the pancake breakfast at 7 a.m., the 5K BBQ Bluegrass Run at 7:30 a.m., the car show from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. organized by Dan Atkinson of Carquest, the Kids Q at 9:30 a.m.
Bluegrass music returns to the stage at 12:30 p.m. People's choice sampling begins at 3 p.m. Competition cookers have the option of entering People's Choice, which is "anything butt" where cooks can cook up anything they like using pork butt. A fee allows you to sample and judge those entered.
Awards are presented at 4:15 p.m. and more music begins at 5 p.m.
There are five local vendors/competitors this year to provide food throughout the festival - Chubby Cheeks BBQ/Lynn Murdoch; 3 Smokin' Chicks/Mikaylynn White; Sochie's BBQ/Josh Garcia; Barr's BBQ/Kari Barr; and We Got Your 6 Portions/Ken Ivy.
There will also be St. Alban's dessert food booth.
Typically, there may be a class reunion or two at the festival. Committee Chairman Dave Paxton said this year there are three class reunions gathering during the 20th annual festival.
New this year is inflatable activities, the Youngs' kiddie train, Worland Football Fanatics dunk booth and facepainting. There are fees for some of these activities.
This year for the 20th year they also were granted a proclamation from Governor Mark Gordon that proclaims Aug. 16-17 the Pepsi Wyoming State BBQ Championship & Bluegrass Festival in Wyoming. The proclamation states in part that the festival brings "national recognition and positive publicity to Wyoming and the city of Worland" and "the event attracts competitors and judges from all corners of Wyoming and from across the United States."
HISTORY
Mike Willard, former Worland-Ten Sleep Chamber of Commerce Director, said he was approached by Guy Charles and George Rohrich about the barbecue competition, and they took a trip to Denver.
He said Peggy Truman suggested that the festival needed music and being a bluegrass fan she was placed in charge of music and got a couple top bluegrass bands.
Initial top sponsors for the first few years were Banner Health Washakie Medical Center, the chamber, RT Communications, Big West Autoplex and Wyoming Gas.
Pepsi is now the naming sponsor. Other top sponsors include Teton Distributors, Wayne & Dolly, Jim and Jane O'Connor, Rocky Mountain Power and KCBS.
The chamber eventually phased out as the main organizing group and it became an event committee handling the planning.
This year's committee has 15 active members according to committee chairman Dave Paxton.
Paxton joins a long line of chairman/directors of the festival including Guy Charles, Jim Blake, John McMartin and Dale Wagner.
The committee honored Jim Blake's service to the event by naming the local high-point cook award the Jim Blake Memorial Award.
The committee honored Dale Wagner after his passing, naming the Mystery Meat award in honor of him as it was Wagner's idea and he chose the mystery meat each year. That duty has now been passed on to Dan Mattis. Cooks do not know what the mystery meat is until the cook's meeting Friday night.
The event started as a one-day event and has grown into three days including Thursday night's brewfest.
Paxton has been the chairman of the committee the past nine years and said being involved in community activities is something he has always enjoyed, including with the Jaycees, Search and Rescue and Elks.
Paxton is also a certified judge, along with a few other committee members. He has judged a few other competitions and did have to fill in one year at the Worland festival.
AWARD-WINNING
The Pepsi Wyoming State BBQ Championship & Bluegrass Festival has one the Rocky Mountain BBQ Association Event Challenge five times, including two consecutive times last year and in 2022.
According to Committee member Terry Cook, the awards won are as follows:
• Rocky Mountain BBQ Association, 2013 Organizer's Event Challenge – Voted the
best organized and run RMBBQA CUP contest for the 2013 BBQ season by teams and
judges
• RMBBQA 2015, Event of the Year - Wyoming State BBQ & Bluegrass Festival
• Rocky Mountain BBQ Association, 2017 Organizer's Event Challenge – Voted the best
organized and run RMBBQA CUP contest for the 2017 BBQ season by teams and judges
• Rocky Mountain BBQ Association, 2022 Organizer's Event Challenge – Voted the best
organized and run RMBBQA CUP contest for the 2022 BBQ season by teams and judges
• Rocky Mountain BBQ Association, 2023 Organizer's Event Challenge – Voted the best
organized and run RMBBQA CUP contest for the 2023 BBQ season by teams and judges
Paxton said the awards and the longevity of the event comes "from the amount of support from the community and the sponsors, but especially the dedication of committee members.
COMPETITION
This year Paxton said they have 30 teams registered, with 25 required for a sanctioned KCBS event. When the festival first started only 15 were required.
This year, for the 20th anniversary, the committee increased the prize money from $10,000 to $15,000.
For the KCBS sanctioned event and to earn points for the season, cooks are judged on four meats, chicken, ribs, brisket and pork. The local festival also includes sauce and mystery meat as options for cooks to enter.
Last year Paxton said they ran into an issue where they were actually short teams as they missed notifications from some teams who were unable to come. Lynn Murdoch divided her team up and one other cook also helped form a team in order for the event to stay a sanctioned event, Paxton said.
With 30 teams registered this year that should not be an issue.
